Our responsibilities
We believe in sustainable school catering – and we achieve it by caring for our people, the planet and your pupils. Our impact should always be positive. Through exceptional service, environmental stewardship and safe working environments.
Second Nature
Our environmental, social and governance strategy, Second Nature, underpins everything we do. We focus on developing and retaining great people, promoting inclusivity, and enhancing sustainable business practices.
Our people
Our people come first, and we take our responsibilities to them very seriously. We look after them, keeping them safe, and creating an inclusive workplace where they feel encouraged to take development opportunities. We want everyone to have the confidence to make their own individual impact – on our services and on the schools where we work.
Safety is at the heart of our policies, systems, practices and behaviour. We provide regular training, instruction and supervision to help our teams work safely, with a particular focus on reporting hazards to maintain a safe working environment.
We also encourage our people to support their local communities, giving everyone three volunteering days a year to work with a charity of their choice. As a business, we channel our charitable responsibilities through our Holroyd Howe Foundation, which supports good causes within local and global communities, and the hospitality and education sectors.
The planet
Fulfilling our environmental responsibilities starts with ethical food sourcing for our schools. Our seasonal, fresh produce comes through supply chains that support local farmers and communities. We choose our supply partners very carefully, working with businesses and initiatives that help minimise our impact on the planet – especially by reducing our carbon footprint, rescuing surplus produce, and limiting our food and plastic waste. We’ve signed up to achieve net zero across our value chain by 2040.
Most importantly, we believe in helping to educate the minds of the future, so your pupils can make informed choices on the food they’re eating. We do this through education programmes on sustainability and nutrition.
Your pupils
Safeguarding the pupils in the schools where we work is critical. The managers who assess our job applicants are trained in safer recruitment, and we undertake an enhanced DBS check for every member of our team.
We work within strict nutrition standards to ensure our pupils’ meals are balanced to give them all the goodness they need as they grow and develop. Providing food that’s safe, wholesome and nutritious is our main everyday responsibility – and for pupils with dietary requirements and other specific needs, we have industry-leading policies, systems and training. In particular, we work closely with each school to support any pupils living with allergies or intolerances, or coeliac disease.
Don't just take our word for it…
Holroyd Howe has been the school caterer since 2017. The saying attributed to Napoleon, ‘An army marches on its stomach’, is equally true for a school – and so the catering team at Bishopsgate is integral to our staff, and its meals, snacks and match teas form part of the Prep School experience. Also, the wider Holroyd Howe team has helped educate the pupils on sustainability and waste. We are very happy to have Holroyd Howe as partners.
Bishopsgate School, Englefield Green, Surrey Bursar
